The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has started the Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF) Data Validation Process, an audit  finalized in the Fiscal Year 2024 and 2025 SNF Prospective Payment System (PPS) rules.

These audits are meant to validate Minimum Data Set (MDS) data used in the SNF Quality Reporting Program (QRP) and Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) program measures.

CMS will randomly select up to 1,500 SNFs per year for audit. The selected SNFs will be notified through iQIES and will be required to provide medical records to support coding on up to 10 selected MDS assessments.

SNFs that fail to comply with the validation process could see impacts to their Annual Payment Update, so providers should be checking their iQIES folders regularly.

More information, including an overview presentation and a Frequently Asked Questions document, are available here. A training video is available from CMS here.